1. Field of the Invention
This is a new process for making picolylamine from cyanopyridines and hydrogen. Palladium on gamma (.gamma.) alumina is used as the catalyst.
2. Prior Art
Volkova et al. teach that cyanopyridines are hydrogenated in the presence of palladium (or palladium on carbon) to form the corresponding picolylamines (i.e., aminomethylpyridines). See Volkova et al.: Chemical Abstracts 79:42296n; 80:120705q; 81:49570x; 83:28065n; and 83:113388q. Matsumoto et al. (Chemical Abstracts, 82:156097r) teach that 2,6-biscyanopyridines are hydrogenated to form the corresponding 2,6-bis(aminomethyl)pyridines as the trihydrochloride salts when the reaction is conducted over palladium on carbon using hydrochloric acid/methanol as the hydrogenation medium. These references indicate that palladium and palladium on carbon are very effective catalysts in the reaction and produce the corresponding picolylamines selectively. In USP at No. 4,080,338 a process for preparing bispicolylamine from the reaction of cyanopyridine with hydrogen in the presence of a palladium or carbon catalyst is disclosed.